Synthesis of long Ag nanowires and its application in GaN nanowires photodetector as transparent electrodes

The novel successive microwave-assisted multistep growth (SMMG) method to rapidly synthesis of long Ag nanowires was reported. The SEM images showed that AgNWs produced by SMMG method were more than 50 mu m, while by a single-step microwave, AgNWs shortened to 15 mu m. The by-product of silver particles is often simultaneously produced. AgNWs with high quality can be synthesized in a single run easily using the straightward purified technique. Using this process it is possible to fabricate transparent flexible electrodes with sheet resistance of about 64 Omega/a- and transparency of 87 % in the visible range by spin coating. High-density and randomly oriented GaN NWs were prepared by a chemical vapor deposition reaction between Ga and NH3 on Si substrates using Ni as catalyst. Long Ag NWs used as transparent flexible electrodes were coated on GaN NWs ensembely to fabricate the fully-NWs-based photodetector. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to report GaN NWs based photodetector relying on Ag NWs electrodes.